Dallas Stars Blog

Observations on an icy weekend and what it means to a game actually played on ice

A smattering of Dallas Stars fans in the stands in the first period of NHL Hockey action against the Philadelphia Flyers at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas on Saturday, December 7, 2013. (Brad Loper/The Dallas Morning News)

The natural phenomena that created Icemeggedon 2013 is not that different from the natural phenomena that brought hockey to Texas in the first place.

I mean, when you get right down to it, neither seem to fit here.

A big disturbance blows down from the north and brings with it some memorable moments of grace and beauty, but none of it ever seems permanent. Yes, the initial impact is exciting, but too many people either seem to avoid it or just get annoyed by it.

“Y’know, this is really more for the people from up north,’’ is the common refrain. “They grew up with this stuff.’’

And that’s true. What person would risk driving on that ice Saturday to see the Stars play? Why would even 8,567 show up? It was championship Saturday in college football and, quite honestly, the 14-9-5 Stars are still trying to find their way this season.

So you could tune in on KXTA…or just check in after the Winter Olympics. After all, you haven’t missed that much in the past five years, right?

But the funny thing about the people who did watch Saturday’s 5-1 win over the Flyers is they were treated to a really nice show. Oh sure, most of them are probably from the north (maybe even Philadelphia), and most of them probably grew up with the sport. But it doesn’t take an expert to enjoy what Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Valeri Nichushkin were able to do against the Flyers. There was speed and skill and beauty.

Sort of like that first sight of the white ice coating your backyard, it took your breath away.

If you’re from down here, it was something new and exciting. If you were from up there, it was a memory of good times past. Yeah, it wasn’t perfect. But the beauty made you forget about the problems getting to the store or making your Christmas lights work or curing your kids’ cabin fever.

Likewise, Saturday’s Stars performance made you forget about the bankruptcy of seasons past or the problems with the growing pains of restructuring your lineup or even the fact you had only 12,673 in attendance a week earlier against the Oilers on a perfectly sunny Saturday.

There is bad with the good. That’s kind of how life works.

But life also usually runs in cycles. There are highs and lows, cold days followed by warm, lots of hard work that is sometimes followed by a little bit of fun.

The hockey gods rewarded all of the folks at AAC Saturday for the hard work, and that includes the players and coaches. While the Stars have been diligent pushing the metrics back in their favor this season, they have had some disappointing recent outcomes. The Rangers stole a game, so did the Oilers, so did the Maple Leafs. And whether it was a loss in regulation or a shootout or overtime, you cringed when it happened like a driver on an icy road whose wheels were sliding sideways in a painfully slow journey toward the guardrail.

You just kinda knew it was going to end badly in those defeats. That’s how this season has felt at times. The hard pace in the West, the slow start for both kids and veterans on the Stars, the goals against in the dying seconds of periods…it’s tough to take. You just feel the progress isn’t fast enough, the process isn’t smart enough, the product isn’t exciting enough.

There are times you want to make trades and give up on some of the roster players. There are times you want to fast forward and move into the era of prospects.

And that was part of the fun of Saturday’s snow day. When the AAC folks invited everyone down into the lower bowl, it seemed to coincide with the team finding its stride. Those who braved the roads got a close look at the future, as Seguin, 21, scored three goals, Nichushkin, 18, set up three, and Benn, 24, was right there in the mix.

On defense, the trio of Jamie Oleksiak, 20, Brenden Dillon, 23, and Kevin Connauton, 23, give hope for the future while Stephane Robidas (broken leg) and Trevor Daley (high ankle sprain) deal with injuries. In the third period, when Vern Fiddler was out with an upper body injury, Antoine Roussel, 24, and Cody Eakin, 22, combined for the final goal.

It was kind of a neat experience, a fun secret for the people in attendance. You got to see “a glimpse,” sort of like Nicholas Cage in the movie A Family Man. The ironically named businessman Jack Campbell gets sent into an alternate world to see what kind of life he could have had. And while he’s trying to understand exactly why this is happening to him, he is told by pseudo angel Don Cheadle that he simply has to wade in and figure it out.

That’s sort of where you are with the Stars. You have been tossed into the middle of the movie, into the middle of an ice storm. Some people have a better idea of the plot than others, but the bottom line is we’re all sliding around a little here.

We’re all curious how this is going to work out.

It was sort of like your drive to American Airlines Center Saturday. You didn’t know what you would encounter on the way. You didn’t know what you would encounter when you got there. You didn’t know if it would be worth it.

But it was.

The same thing happened back in 1995 and 1996 and 1997. More people made the effort to watch the Stars, and more people were rewarded. You got that feeling Saturday, like good times are approaching in the near future.

You’re not always sure why this weather blows in, but you are sometimes amused by the fun you have. It’s not natural, it’s not what you’re used to, but it is different.

And when you put the effort into enjoying it, it can be pretty entertaining.

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